The rogue nation announced Friday it is close to completing an experimental uranium program and will continue to weaponize plutonium, even as its regime reaches out to Washington for direct disarmament talks, The Associated Press reported.

Experts said the North’s second nuclear path could help the country hide its nuclear program in underground factories -- uranium-based weapons do not require test explosions -- and give the North another bargaining chip in negotiations with the West. Kim Jong Il's regime is still about five years away from building a uranium-based bomb, a researcher at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Institute told the AP.

“We are prepared for both sanctions and dialogue,” the North said in a statement.